Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
“At college, when people ask us how we met, how will we answer them? The short story is, we grew up together. But that’s more Josh’s and my story. High school sweethearts? That’s Peter and Gen’s story. So what’s our then?
I suppose I’ll sat it all started with a love letter.”
So this was my first official buddy read, and it was with the rocking Emi. And thank God it was her, because turns out we had a lot of similar comments. Hooray for BR’s and hmming and haawwwing about things as they progress. This was just a first for me doing it via the interweb, there is definitely something about reading right next to my love Amanda though and seeing her face light up at the same time as mine.
Okay, to the book. This ended exactly how I expected it to, even if I wasn’t exactly happy about it. I may have an unpopular opinion about this book, which surprised me since I enjoyed the first two…however, now that I’ve read this one I think I would notice all the stuff that made me cringe through this one in the first two.
I am not sure how I didn’t notice it in the first two books, but I really just think LJ is super immature. I am not sure if it’s because Peter is her first fake/real boyfriend. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been 18 and young&inlove in a long time. But I really just wanted to strangle the girl and tell her to stop being dumb. This isn’t going to be a great review because I just don’t care enough.
Here are the particulars about what really ruined this book.
-LJ’s ridiculously possessive of Peter & sort of treats him awfully getting him to do stuff he doesn’t want to do. But then again, Peter acts like a little whipped puppy.
“Is there anything more intoxicating than making a boy bend to our will?”
-LJ & Peter pretty much don’t ever have any serious conversations. In fact, at one point they quipped back and forth about boys taking 2 steps at a time vs girls taking just 1 step at a time.
-There was so much nothing happening in the book that all 325 pages can be summed up in probably a sentence: LJ struggles to figure out what to do for college and how to handle her relationship with Peter post graduation. You can honestly read the synopsis of the book, and be like okay great, that’s what happens. That way you don’t have to read in the filler play-by-play of LJ’s days including stuff like sitting around sorting shoes with Margo…THIS scene drove me nuts, because I wondered, hmmmm maybe something about this is important to the story…it wasn’t though, just a half page of text.
-I had a very hard time relating to LJ. I know it happens, truly I do, but can we just point at LJ and say you’re whole family is spoiled and you take it for granted? She bought a 2lb bag of chocolate for $30! She puts a deposit on a university like it’s no big deal, all the while her sister is studying in Scotland! I’m pretty sure LJ hasn’t ever had to wonder, if I ask my dad for money for X, will he say no? NO! Because he also apparently funds her to go stay at a beach house for a week with a bunch of other teenagers. I CAN HARDLY AFFORD THAT AS AN ADULT, WHAT IS A TEENAGER GOING OFF TO DO THIS SHXT FOR?!
-And then there is Peter. There is one other character I have encountered that I hated as much as Peter. Dean Forester from Gilmore Girls. Here’s this all around well liked guy that is, lets face it sweet, but super boring and doesn’t have a thing in common with LJ. He likes to eat cookies. But is super clingy and is a little bxtch about her going to college. MKAY bye Dean #TeamJess
